The author partly shared the life of street paper sellers in the Parisian underground from 1994 to 1997. Inspired by the London model of The Big Issue street papers such as Macadam, Le Réverbère, La Rue, Faim de siècle appeared successively in France from spring 1993 onwards. This new press aimed at contributing to the insertion of people in a situation of great precarity. On the basis of her observations and of sellers’ reports the author gives a sociological analysis of this activity very little studied until now in social sciences. She describes the sale experience and modes of adaptation of these sellers confronted with a « job » without rules and restraints. By observing the main resources they show and portraying some of them she points out their relation to this activity and to their daily life, as well as the limits of the initiatives aiming at transforming these « beggars » into « deserving poor ».